Thursday, July 23, 2009

Dark Heresy

The first of three (?) long awaited Warhammer 40k RPGs, Dark Heresy has the players taking the roles of an Inquisitor's retinue.

The system is based on WHFRP, which in turn built on the system used in the wargame.

Character generation allows for a purely random method, so that's what we'll be doing.

First I roll to see what sort of planet my guy came from, getting a 71 - he's been born on an Imperial world, which is the most likely option, the others being Feral world, Hive world and Void Born.

Being from an Imperial world gives my character the following traits

Blessed Ignorance (-5 on Forbidden Lore tests)Hagiography (The Common Lore skills of Imperium, Imperial Creed and War are treated as Basic Skills)Liturgical Familiarity (Literacy and Language (High Gothic) are treated as Basic Skills)Superior Origins (+3 to Willpower)

Now I generate Characteristics. These are all rolled on 2d10 plus a fixed number set by your Homeworld type.

I may re-roll one of these, with the caveat that I have to take the re-rolled result even if it's worse.

I decide to take a chance and re-roll Ballistic Skill, getting a total of 29

Next we roll for Career Path. All paths are open to Imperial World citizens, and I get a 30, meaning my character is an Assassin. This gives my character the following Skills, Talents and Equipment. Some talents are presented as a choice of two, for example I can be Ambidextrous or Unremarkable.

Now we roll for Wound and Fate points, getting a 10 on both rolls, giving 13 Wound points and 3 Fate points.

My agility gives me a base move of 4 and I roll 138 for Starting Wealth.

I next get to spend 400 xp on Career path advances.

I spend my advances as follows, each costing 100 xp

Agility +5Ballistic Skill +5Inquiry (skill)Silent Move (skill)

Now we roll on a bunch of tables to generate the fluff details.

My character is Well built, 50 years old, tanned with blond hair and brown eyes. He has pox marks and came from a Feudal world.

His reading from the Imperial Tarot was 'The gun is mightier than the sword', giving a +3 to Ballistic skill.

I decide to roll for his name on the Archaic table, and get Attilas.

So there we are. One basic Dark Heresy character. As with all DH characters he's a bit rubbish. The age is a bit of a surprise, maybe he was more of an armchair assassin rather until picked up by the Inquisition.